Wade's cousin shot and killed in Chicago
One day after Dwyane Wade participated in a town hall panel discussing the violence that's plagued his hometown of Chicago, his cousin was shot and killed Friday while pushing a baby in a stroller on the city's South Side.
My cousin was killed today in Chicago. Another act of senseless gun violence. 4 kids lost their mom for NO REASON. Unreal. #EnoughIsEnough
— DWade (@DwyaneWade) August 27, 2016
Nykea Aldridge, 32, was Wade's first cousin. Police say the baby wasn't hurt.
"Just going to register her kids in school, and bullets that fly around and have no name decided to find its way to her head," Wade's mother and Aldridge's aunt, Jolinda Wade, told reporters Friday night.
"The entire Chicago Bulls organization is deeply saddened by the news of Dwyane Wade’s cousin, Nykea Aldridge," Wade's new team said in a statement. "We send our deepest condolences to the entire Wade family during this difficult time."
Jolinda, a Chicago pastor, joined her son Thursday in the panel hosted by ESPN's The Undefeated. They discussed some of the challenges African-Americans face living in one of the nation's most violent cities.
"Reality TV is raising our children today," she said Thursday. "And they're going out on the street and being disconnected. ... They grow up and look around and nothing's there."
It's not the Wade family's first brush with gun violence. In 2012, Dwyane's nephew was hit twice in the leg in a shooting that killed another man.
As of its most recent update Friday, the Chicago Tribune website that tracks crime in the city has recorded 455 homicides and 2,739 shooting victims this year alone.